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A new lawsuit filed against the federal Environmental Protection Agency accuses the agency of penalizing refiners for failing to meet “unattainable and absurd” cellulosic biofuels quotas outlined in EPA’s renewable fuels standard.

The EPA mandates the purchase of biofuels formulated in part from materials including switchgrass, wood chips and agricultural waste. But the American Petroleum Institute argues that the quotas set an unrealistic goal because no such cellulosic biofuels are produced on a commercial scale in the nation.

Georgia voters sent a very clear message in last week’s primaries: They don’t trust the state’s political leadership.

This mistrust came through in two of the most widely discussed issues on the ballot: the T-SPLOST transportation tax and the straw vote questions for a cap on lobbyist spending.

T-SPLOST lost by lopsided margins in nine of the 12 regions that voted on the one-cent sales tax for transportation projects. In the Metro Atlanta region, where business groups raised $6.5 million to campaign for its passage, the sales tax increase was defeated by 62-38 percent.

As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and a father of three, I have ample opportunity to practice what I preach. For instance, I reassured my wife that our daughters would outgrow their pigeon toes. When my son split his forehead open, I talked her into letting me treat the wound at home with steri-strips. (I’m still paying for that one, by the way.)

But when my daughter started school, I was the one who needed reassurance when I picked up her backpack. It weighed at least 10 pounds. I couldn’t believe it!

“Honest criticism is hard to take – particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”

– Franklin Jones

In this, the periodic season of dart-throwing, wall-to-wall campaigning and downright nastiness toward office holders or those who, by the grace of God or their own egotistical fortitude are trying to take their place, I can’t help but remember what it was like when, on a much more miniscule scale, my short stint as an organization president was handled with similar mis-care.

On Tuesday, it will be time for the polls to open again. This column is to beg you all to go and vote for the candidates of your choice.

It always saddens me to hear that only 50 percent or fewer of the American population go to the polls. This is a right we all have to speak our minds. If you don’t like the way our government is being run, then let them know. If you’re satisfied with how things are going, you need to let them know that, too.

The Montgomery County community is situated a little north of Uvalda and a few miles west of Vidalia in the heart of southeast Georgia’s onion country. Its population was counted at 432 in the last census.

Even with its small size, Ailey was still big enough to have its own hometown bank for more than 85 years: Montgomery Bank & Trust.

On July 31, or earlier with advanced voting, we will have the opportunity to vote for or against transportation for our region. Not only will Columbia County citizens have the opportunity to vote on the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or TSPLOST, but so will Richmond, McDuffie, Oglethorpe, Fulton and all 159 counties in the state of Georgia.

When I was 13 and growing up in Augusta, I began to experience the same symptoms of the chronic inflammatory disease that my mother was diagnosed with in her early 30s. A group of capable doctors identified the problems and developed a course of observation and treatment.

The health insurance offered by my dad’s job as a hotel manager, in addition to the love and care of my wonderful parents, made it possible for me to become the reasonably healthy college student that I am today.